Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1887-12-14
EDISON'S PHONOGRAPH.
The Wonderful Things He Claims
the Machine Will Do.
An Invention Which, If Found Practical,
VIII Do Away with Stenography
and pewriting-Language Trans
mitted by Mail.

anu AypeWTitluS-n-AnSuaSo IrnnS-
mitted by Mail.
When found by New York Post reporter
in the laboratory of his lamp factory in
Newark, from which four thousand lamps q
day are now sent out Edison said that tho
commercial phonograph is now the most in
teresting thing IN the world TO him, al
though it is perfectly finished, and tools are
being made for its manufacture upon a.
large scale. The stories which Edison tells
OF what his perfected phonograph will do
are 80 extraordinary that he scarcely ex-
poets people to believe him, and yet he says
that the apparatus is so simple, so effective
and so Immediately useful that he is GER
tain of its rapid introduction into business
far more certain than he was of the uni
versal adoption of the telephone as busi-
ness instrument. Edison said of his newly
finished phonograph: "You know that l
finished the first phonograph more than ten
years ago. 1t remained more or less toy.
The germ Of something wonderful
was perfectly distinct, but l tried
the impossible with it, and when
the electric-light business assumed COM
mercial Importance l threw every thing
overheard for that. Nevertheless, the
phonograph has been more or less con-
stantly in my mind ever since. When rest
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my brain would revert almost automatical-
ly to the old idea. Since the light has been
finished have taken up the phonograph,
and after eight months of steady work have
made it a commercial invention. My pho
nograph expect to see in every business
office. The first five hundred will, hope,
be ready for distribution about the end of
January. Their operation is simplicity it
self and can not fail. The merchant or
clerk who wishes to send letter has only
to set the machine in motion and to talk in
his natural voice and at the usual rate Of
speed into the receiver. When he has fin
ished the sheet, or 'phonogram,' as l call
it, is ready for putting into a little box made
on purpose for the mails. We are making
the sheets in three sizes -one for letters of
from 800 to 1000 words, another size for
1900 words, another size for 1 900 words.
expect that arrangements may be made
with the post-office authorities enabling the
phonogram boxes to be sent at the same
rate as a letter.
"The receiver of a phonogram will put it
into his apparatus and the message will be
given out more clearly, more distinctly
than the best telephone message ever sent.
The tones of the voice in the two phono-
graphs which have finished are so perfect
ly rendered that one can distinguish be-
OF whom has said a few words. One tre-
mendous advantage is that the letter NAV
be repeated thousand times if necessary
The phonogram does not wear out by use:
moreover 1t may be filed away for hundred
years and be ready the instant it is needed.
If a man dictates his viii to the phonograph.
there will be no disputing the authenticity
of the document with those who knew the
tones of his voice in life. The cost of MAX
ing the phonogram will be scarcely more
than the cost of ordinary letter paper The
machine will read out the letter or message
at the same speed with which it was die
tated.
81 have experimental with device for
enabling printers to set type directly from
the dictation of the phonograph, and think
that it will work to charm 1t is so ar
ranged that the printer, by touching a lever
with his foot allows five or ten words of the
phonogram to be sounded; if he is not sat
lshed with the first hearing he can make
1t repeat the same words over and over
again until he has them in type. For busy
men who dictate great deal for the press
l am sure the phonograph will be neces-
sity after very little experience.
For musicians the phonograph is going
to do wonders, owing TO the extreme cheap
ness with which l can duplicate phono-
paratus gives out all musical sounds In
the early phonograph of ten years ago,
which was very imperfect and crude af-
fair compared TO that OF to-day, it was al
ways noticed that musical sounds came out
particularly well; the machine would
whistle or sing far better than it would
talk. This popularity Of the phonograph
remains. / have taken down the music of
an orchestra, and the result is marvellous;
each instrument can be perfectly dis
tnguished, the strings are perfectly dis
tlnct, the viollns from the cellos the wind
instruments and the wood are perfectly
heard; and even in the notes of violin the
over-tones are distinct to delicate ear It
is going to work wonders for the benefit of
music-lovers. A piece for any instrument,
for the piano, or for an orchestra, or an
act, or the whole of an opera. musical in
struments and voices, can be given out by
| the phonograph with a beauty of tone and
distinctness past belief, and the duplicat-
ing apparatus for phonograms is so cheap
| an affair that the price of music for the
| phonograph will be scarcely worth consid-
ering AS the phonogram will be practical
| ly indestructible by ordinary use, such mu-
Sic can be played over and over again.
My first phonograph, as you remember,
consisted simply of roller carrying the
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| properly arranged TO scrape or indent the
| foil The roller was turned by hand. In
the new instrument there is far more COM
| plication, but altogether different results.
My propelhng machinery consists of a small
| electric motor, run by very few cells.
| Strange to say have found more difficulty
| in getting motor to suit me than any other
| part of the apparatus. tried various kinds
| of clockwork and spring motors, but found
them untrustworthy and noisy. The motors
am now making are absolutely steady and
noiseless There is no part Of the apparatus,
| the tools for which / am now making on a
large scale here, which is likely to get out
| of order or to work in an uncertain manner
| The two finished monographs are practi-
cally exactly what intend TO offer for sale
within few months.'